Inspire Olympia unveils plan to increase cultural grant funding 

Olympia's Community Livability and Public Safety Committee approved the Cultural Access Advisory Board's recommendation to increase grant funding for local cultural organizations and schools.  

The recommendation will move forward to the city council for consideration.  

At a committee meeting on Tuesday, July 23, Cultural Access Program Manager Marygrace Goddu shared the board's recommendations. She said the updates aim to broaden access to grants, strengthen the impact of the program, and make thoughtful use of a $3.5 million reserve that has accumulated since the tax-funded program launched.  

The Inspire Olympia program is funded by a 0.1% local sales tax that voters approved in April 2022. The program aims to support arts, science and heritage programming. Tax collection began 18 months before the first round of grants was awarded. In addition, the program underspent during its first year, particularly on public school programs, such as cultural field trip transportation.  

As a result, the program entered its second year with approximately $3.5 million in unspent funds.  

The board is proposing a four-year financial plan that would gradually draw down most of that reserve, while maintaining a responsible financial buffer by increasing annual grant awards and investments in schools and organizational development.  

"Our goal is to put more of this money to work without compromising the financial stability or the long-term planning that we are trying to do with this fund," Goddu said.  

The board's proposal outlined how Inspire Olympia can gradually use the reserve through 2029, while keeping $500,000 to $600,000 in reserve by the end of that period. That amount represents about 20% of the city's grant commitments — a threshold recommended by the city's finance department.  

The plan assumes annual Cultural Access tax revenues will remain at $3.1 million per year, although actual revenues may increase. To stay within budget, the program would cap administrative costs at 10% of revenue each year and direct the rest toward grant funding.  

The board recommends raising the maximum grant amounts available to applicants in both funding categories: 

• Comprehensive grants for large nonprofits with year-round programming. The current maximum grant is $75,000. The board proposed an increase of up to $85,000, and raised the cap to 20% from 15% of an organization's average two-year operating budget.  

• Impact grants for smaller, often volunteer-run organizations. The current funding range is $3,000 to $30,000. The board proposed an increase to $5,000 to $50,000. 

Goddu noted half of the current impact grantees fall in the mid-to-upper size range of this category and would benefit from expanded funding access.

"Interestingly, the impact group has, when you look at them in their program sizes, there's a significant cluster of about 30 organizations, and that's about half of them, that are in the range of $100,000 to $200,000, and that's including their volunteer, the value of their volunteer (contributions)," Goddu said. 

"The board also recommends adding a requirement for comprehensive fund organizations to provide youth programming. This is a change that would impact only one current organization, which, on paper, doesn't do youth programming but, they do, so it is not a huge adjustment for them to step up their formal program in that area." 

If approved by the city council, the proposed changes would apply to: 

• The 2026 and 2027 one-year grant cycles. 

• The 2026-2028 two-year grant cycle. 

Updated program guidelines will be published this November, giving applicants time to prepare before submitting proposals in early 2026.